“The tort of civil harassment is codified in CCP sec. 527.6. It authorizes a temporary restraining order and an order after hearing prohibiting harassment, defined as “unlawful violence, a credible threat of violence, or a knowing and willful course of conduct directed at a specific person that seriously alarms, annoys, or harasses the person, and that serves no legitimate purpose. . . The statute provides a remedy for harassment against individuals. The term “person,” as used in the statute, refers only to natural persons, and not to corporations, associations or other “artificial” persons.”
“Harassment consists of: unlawful violence, a credible threat of violence, or a knowing and willful course of harassing conduct directed at a specific person that serves no legitimate purpose. ‘Unlawful violence’ is ‘any assault or battery, or stalking . . ., but does not include lawful acts of self-defense or defense of others.’ A ‘credible threat of violence’ is a knowing and willful statement or course of conduct that would place a reasonable person in fear for the person’s safety or the safety of the person’s immediate family, and that serves no legitimate purpose.'” For showing of a course of harassing conduct, “the respondent must engage in an intentional course of conduct directed at petitioner that would cause a reasonable person to suffer substantial emotional distress, and actually causes petitioner to suffer such distress. A ‘course of conduct’ requires a series of acts over a period of time, however short, evidencing a continuity of purpose. . . The course of conduct must be that which would cause a reasonable person to suffer substantial emotional distress and must actually cause petitioner to suffer substantial emotional distress. . . Respondent’s harassment must actually cause Petitioner substantial emotional distress. If the harassment consists of a course of conduct, petitioner must prove ‘ substantial emotional distress.’ In other cases, harassment is apparently actionable without injury or damage.”
“Although there is no known authority [on] point, a claim for damages under Civ.C. sec. 1708.7 is likely subject to CCP sec. 338(a)’s three-year statute of limitations governing ‘an action upon a liability created by statute, other than a penalty or forfeiture’. . . [T]he cause of action accrues at the time of the last injurious act or when the tortious conduct stops.”
“The statute provides an expedited procedure for the issuance of temporary restraining orders and orders after hearing prohibiting harassment.”
[California Practice Guide: Civil Procedure Before Trail Claims & Defenses [citations to primary sources omitted]]
